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Re: Documenting the way software actually works WAS: Try selling the sizzle of what you do.
Subject:Re: Documenting the way software actually works WAS: Try selling the sizzle of what you do. From:jenny_berger -at- fairfieldresidential -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 17 Feb 2003 10:16:04 -0600
rs-on the road <rshade -at- fast -dot- net> wrote:
> I read end user docs for every bit of hardware and software I use or am
> considering using. No, I don't sit down with a cup of coffee and read
> process description after process description, but I do search out
> conceptual information and read it as one of the steps of my learning
the
> software. I refer to specific process descriptions when they apply to
the
> task(s) I am performing.
Russ, it sounds like you are the exception that proves the rule ;-) If
I'd had more audiences that consisted of users like you, then my
perceptions and my experiences would be very different. However, I have
not had that kind of luck. Doubtless there might have been a precious few
that were well beyond the Platonic Scale of "Moronic" Behavior, but
unfortunately their feedback, if any, was never passed on to me.
But that you happen to digest everything you can about a product simply
demonstrates that *you're* a more informed end-user. The audiences I've
written for in my admittedly short career haven't been nearly as
well-informed, nor have they desired to be. Forgive me if I appeared to
make a broad generalization about all users, but I still stand by what
I've experienced so far. Considering the audiences I've written for,
documenting what is supposed to occur in a product, as opposed to what
actually occurs, is not always the most effective (or desirable) thing to
do.
Jenny Berger
Technical Writer
Information Systems
Fairfield Residential
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